Great music, awful packaging
aliled | Shawnee, Kansas United States | 05/03/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First things first, the "rare" stuff. "Sweet Revenge" is what should have been the third Generation X album with the original line-up, but wasn't released at the time. It shares some tracks (though in different versions) with what was released as the third album, "Kiss Me Deadly". It's a pretty fine record, but in comparing the tracks the two albums share, it's clear that "Kiss Me Deadly" enjoys better recording and production. But it's a treat to hear the "new" songs, which are pretty good, and a few - most notably "Girls" - about as good as anything the band did. "Live At Osaka" is a pretty fair recording of the band around the same period of time as the unreleased album. A good selection of hits, b-sides and album tracks and reasonably good sound quality.The first disc claims "the complete singles", but what you're really getting is all the a-sides, not chronologically, as well as a few b-sides and album tracks, plus three rarities - covers of Led Zeppelin and Free (interesting but not that great) and "New Order", which previously was found on the (totally redundant if you own this) "Perfect Hits" CD. In fact, disc one is essentially that CD with some extra tracks.All of this would be fine, except the packaging is awful. A shame when "Perfect Hits" was pretty well packaged. The liner notes are pretty skimpy with details, have LOTS of annoying misspellings and ZILLIONS of typos and not many pictures or anything. (In fact the bootleg version of "Sweet Revenge" was much more professionally packaged.) There's not much of an excuse for this; the package was delayed a year and there was ample opportunity to get some real fans or professional critics to contribute notes that would have been worthwhile. The interview track with Tony James is very open to discussing the drug problems that [messed] up the band - kudoos for his honesty - so it's a shame that the same sort of thoroughness didn't enhance the packaging.The other perplexing thing is why so many album tracks are on this set to the exclusion of the few remaining non-CD b-sides which would have made this the perfect completist's set. Where are Loopy Dub, Rock On, Ugly Rash and Ugly Dub?Two other notes: "This Heat" on the live disc is actually not that song but "Trying For Kicks". I don't know how they [messed] that up. And all the studio tracks from "Valley Of The Dolls" are way remixed and sound pretty different than any other version of the album - almost painfully "hot" compared to the songs from other records. No mention of this is made in the notes or anywhere."
Revenge is Sweet
Harold Grey | San Jose, CA United States | 04/14/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I had been looking for the Sweet Revenge bootleg for a long time, and it has been worth the wait. Disc 1 is mostly songs from the first 2 LPs. Disc 2 is the real value here. It is real interesting to hear the early versions of the songs that later appeared on Kiss Me Deadly. And an even bigger treat to hear Derwood Andrews playing the songs instead of James Stevenson or Steve New or Steve Jones. I never realized Andrews came up with the riffs for Dancing with Myself, Triumph and Others. Of the unreleased songs, I really like Girls, Modern Boys and Cathy Comes Home. The interview with Tony James is also good in that he talks about the drug abuse that marred the Kiss Me Deadly sessions. I haven't gotten to Disc 3 yet, a concert from Osaka, Japan. I always though Derwood Andrews was one of the underrated guitarists of the punk generation. One minor disappointment: the liner notes and artwork are kind of [bad]. They could have done a better job. A must have for any GenX fan."
Gen X Fan's Dream Release
will zumm | NEW YORK | 11/30/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Every Gen X fan has disc one in one form or another. What's new is disc two (unreleased album by org line-up) and disc three (unreleased concert).Purchased this two weeks ago and it's been on steady rotation on my player since; and I'm a person who's easily bored.The versions of Triumph and Stars Looked Down on the unreleased album that were redone for the Kiss Me Deadly album easily SURPASS the later versions.The guy who wrote the 2 star review is an idiot!Yeah, the liner notes suck and are filled with grammatical errors and misspellings: so what? I buy CDs for music, not liner notes!Get it - you won't regret it!"
Track Listings (19) - Disc #1